Ballet

Ballet, using a strict dance technique which has evolved over the past five centuries, is united with music, decor and costume to create works of dramatic, lyric or pure dance interest. Strictly, the word ballet should relate only to works in the classic style but in recent years, with the increasing combination of classical ballet and freer contemporary techniques, it has come to be used to describe almost any theatrical dance arrangement.

Ballet traces its history from the Renaissance spectacles which combined music, singing, poetry, dancing and decoration - an amalgamation of all of the arts. From Italy it moved to France and found its popularity in the French courts, especially under Louis XIV. Then it entered the professional theatre and the dancing masters of the 18th Century gradually established it as entertainment in its own right. By the early 19th Century Blasis had codified technique and by the Romantic era ballet had arrived in much the form we know. Later, it flowered in Russia and was then revitalized in the West. By the middle of the 20th Century, what had initially been a diversion for the nobility had become popular worldwide.

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The disciplinary training of Classical Ballet provides the student with improved posture and a control of mind and body beneficial to health, physique and artistic appreciation. With regular classes a child will develop his natural co-ordination of movement and musicality and will gain confidence in his own abilities which will be beneficial in everyday life.

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Our Mission

Children, young people and vulnerable adults have the right to participate, have fun and be safe in the services provided for them and the activities they choose, or their parents/carers choose for them. The Weston School is dedicated to providing a safe environment in which its students, whatever their age or ability, can develop and further their talents.